Working from the fringes of Greensboro politics and development to build a brighter future for Greensboro into the 21st Century and beyond.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Define Who Are We, Councilman Fox

Tuesday night's Greensboro City Council meeting included some comments about Black on Black crime from Greensboro City Councilman Jamal Fox in which Mr Fox accused the community of not working to reduce black on black crime. In his comments Mr Fox said we are working on it but when the speaker from the floor asked Mr Fox to identify who we is, Mr Fox failed to reply and Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan cut off the speaker's microphone.

The fact is: there are numerous groups in Greensboro working to solve the problems of black on black crime. There are also other groups who seem to only want to talk about black on black crime while listening to no one else. Apparently Mr Fox and his unidentified group is among those who want to do all the talking and no listening.

"Just watched the city council meeting from yesterday only to see Rep. Jamal Fox
blame his community (District 2) for not addressing violence in the
community, which he classified as "Black on Black crime". I lived in
district 1 and 2 for 10 years. I attended Middle and high school in
district 1 and I still work in both those communities and well Mr. Fox
is totally wrong on this one and here's why.

1) Indeed there is
violence in our community, there is also rampant poverty, food deserts,
failing schools, and no investment in the people. I would argue that
these conditions left unaddressed is what lead to the violence and
hearing him address this without any mention of that context or the role
that the council and police department play in creating and sustaining
these conditions is irresponsible and dangerous. 2) to juxtapose
protests against systematic racism within the police culture and
judicial system against acts of individual violence and crime is a
misleading and disingenuous response to an institutional problem that
has been in our community for decades. 3) the Police department has
never earnestly come to the table to partner with the community. A
partnership involves access and input on many levels the community
conversations that are being offered is not a partnership it's a therapy
session. If GPD can't come to the table willing to open the doors to
their back rooms when it's time to make decisions then it serves little
purpose. The GPD just showing there face in the communities they have
terrorized, even with there trusty city councilman by their side, does
not create trust or security. 4) Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...if you want to help
with violence in our community then you should focus on bringing job and
development to district 2, partner with the school board to raise local
teacher pay and invest in our schools and communities and not the
police department!

The community has been engaged in combating violence in our community
from individuals and institutions. Instead of suggesting that nothing is
being done uplift and support the efforts that have been for years
active on these issues. We affirm that Black Lives Matter and it would
be great if you would affirm that also! I am open to any dialogue around
this issue as always but I am extremely disappointed with the
statements made with lack of context and perspective.

Revolutionary Love!"

As usual, Jamal Fox and the Greensboro City Council has shown a refusal to listen to both sides for fear of having the "Grasshopper's" own political agendas overturned. Liberal and conservative, we here at EzGreensboro.com are not scared of the voices of the left and the right as we work to empower Greensboro's working classes as we know the corruption being hidden by our political elite through discrimination and the improper use of taxation is our mutual enemy.